Page 5 of Cup of Lies

Or else what?

“I want to visit my family,” I say instead, trying not to tremble with fear. “I need a phone to make the arrangements.”

Pity shines in his eyes. “They don’t want you anymore. No one does. For some reason, I’m the only one who does.”

“I don’t believe you.” My eyes fill with tears.

“That’s because you’re fucking insane, Romy.” He presses a sloppy kiss to my lips and then pulls away. “You make every day of my life more difficult than the last.”

He taps on his phone screen again. A cold, numb feeling races from the back of my neck down to my toes. It’s trying to cloud my mind, too, but I think the anger and fear are too overpowering.

Whatever he did to Kaitlyn, he just tried to do to me.

But, unlike her, it didn’t work.

I’m not a mindless zombie.

Seth is still a monster.

I give him a blank look and then smile. “What would you like for dinner tonight, honey?”

His eyes narrow as if to seek out any untruths. I blink at him, seemingly unbothered. He relaxes slightly.

“I can order pizza,” he says, voice rough and tired.

“Whatever you want.” I flash him a warm grin. “Scoot along. I need to tidy up the bathroom.”

It takes impressive acting skills to approach this man and kiss him on the lips.

Luckily, he buys the lie.

For now.

While I clean up his pubes, I make a plan to escape.

Seth Portman is a bad man. I don’t know how I couldn’t see it before, but I know it to be true. I’ll have to keep my mind sorted long enough to execute said plan. Kaitlyn and my unborn child are counting on it.

I have to keep them safe.

Caius

Ican’t shake the feeling that something’s off.

I’m in my house, at my desk, and staring at my laptop screen. There’s work to do. I know this. Yet I can’t focus on any of it.

What’s wrong with me?

That’s the question I keep asking myself over and over again. There’s something beyond reach that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s there, but it isn’t. It exists, but it doesn’t.

This feeling is maddening.

It’s not like I woke up like this either.

I’ve been drifting for months and months, doing my best to contribute to the workload of CUP, but I’m unable to settle on a feeling of normalcy.

Everything feels wrong.

Like that Disney movie I watched once with… I frown because I can’t remember. It was a movie about a girl named Alice, who fell down a rabbit hole. Her world was turned upside down. Everything was inside out.

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